


Destiny Deferred

by Quipxotic



Series: In a Kinder Universe [4]
Category: Rogue One: A Star Wars Story (2016), Star Wars - All Media Types, Star Wars Episode VII: The Force Awakens (2015)
Genre: Alternate Universe - Canon Divergence, Character Death, Domestic Fluff, F/M, Ficlet, Squabbling, Talking, The Fate of Hosnian Prime, Until it isn't, You Can't Fight Fate
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-01-16
Updated: 2017-01-16
Packaged: 2018-09-17 23:12:59
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: Major Character Death
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,679
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/9350447
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Quipxotic/pseuds/Quipxotic
Summary: It’s been decades since the Rebel Alliance defeated the Empire, but can Jyn and Cassian ever truly escape their fate?





	

**Author's Note:**

> First, a brief confession: what I know of Star Wars comes from the movies and the novelizations for _Rogue One_ and _The Force Awakens_ so none of this is remotely canon for the greater Star Wars universe. 
> 
> Thanks to nairobiwonders for the Spanish translation at the end.
> 
> I suspect I'll have a lot of things to apologize for after this, so sorry in advance.

Jyn dropped her bag just inside the front door and stretched. It wasn’t the worst trip she’d ever taken - she could think of plenty during the war that were far more nightmarish - but it had been a long time since she’d felt this tired from traveling. Getting old at last, she thought, before dismissing the idea as irrelevant - a byproduct of nostalgia and seeing old friends.

“Cassian?” she called out. She knew he must have heard her disengage and reengage the apartment’s security. Normally, he’d be there to greet her first thing, so either something was wrong - she reached for her blaster just in case - or he was doing exactly what he’d sworn he wouldn’t do. She moved slowly, cautiously through the entryway, kitchen, and primary living area before she spotted him in their office. He was sitting in a chair, surrounded by datapads. 

“I thought so,” she announced, relaxing a bit despite her annoyance. “That’s entirely too many datapads for a man who is supposed to be retired.”

“Huh?” Cassian looked up distracted. He blinked at her a few times before he registered the obvious. “You’re home.” 

“Very good. I can see why the New Republic hired you to manage their security.” Jyn placed her blaster on a side table and walked to stand in front of him. “Maybe you missed this in your Alliance Intelligence training all those decades ago,“ she picked up a datapad and waved it in front of his face, “but datapads are meant to hold multiple documents, so you really don’t need more than one.”

Cassian sighed and smiled guiltily at her. “I got tired of flipping back and forth through all this data.”

“Cassian.” 

“I know-”

“You promised me that you were done.”

“Jyn, I know and I’m sorry. Malik just asked-“

“Malik!” she snorted. “Eva Malik is a perfectly capable woman. Let her do her job! And please tell me that this wasn’t the reason you skipped out on our trip to Jedha!”

“Jyn-“ 

“No, Cassian. You’ve served your time! We both have. Let someone else keep the universe safe for a while.” She was wasting her breath and she knew it. Even after all these years he couldn’t help himself, couldn’t give up on the cause - he wouldn’t be Cassian Andor if he could. And while his dogged devotion to the good of the galaxy was part of the reason she loved him, sometimes it infuriated her.

Cassian sighed and slowly lowered the pad he was holding. “Peace, Jyn - I surrender.” 

“As you should,” she grumbled. “Unconditionally.”

He chuckled at that and stood before leaning down to kiss her gently on the forehead. 

“Better,” she conceded. 

“Good, because I missed you terribly. How about something to drink? Have you eaten?” 

“Yes to a drink. I don’t think I could face food yet.” She wrapped her arms around him and sighed, relaxing the last bit of tension she’d been carrying in her shoulders. 

He hugged her back, frowning in concern as he did so. “Did something happen? Are you okay?”

“I’m fine, don’t fuss.” She smiled crookedly up at him. “I’m just glad to be home. Would you believe, I’m not as young as I used to be?”

“Who is?” He gave her a little squeeze and left the room to pour her a glass of wine. “How was Jedha?” 

“Cold.” Jyn sat down and waited. “The ceremony was nice. They mentioned Chirrut and Baze on the memorial - I’m sure Bodhi had a hand in that.” She stretched out her legs a bit, absentmindedly rubbing the knee she’d injured long ago on Scarif. It tended to act up whenever she overexerted herself and she hadn’t realized how much it ached until she sat down. “Luckily my role was mostly symbolic, so I got out of most of the clambering up and down that the Senate’s ambassadors were treated to.” She chuckled darkly. Despite having worked with the New Republic government for years, she wasn’t a fan of most politicians. “Which meant I got to spend that time with Bodhi instead. Apparently the scientists think Jedha is stable enough for people to inhabit on a permanent basis, finally. He says he’s already had three contacts from universities petitioning for the chance to begin archaeological digs.”

“To find what?” Cassian returned with her drink and sat opposite her with his own. 

“The Holy City,” Jyn said, shrugging.

He looked at her in confusion. “But it was destroy. Completely destroyed.”

“You know that, I know that, and Bodhi knows that - but they think they can find something that survived the Death Star’s attack.”

Cassian raised his eyebrows. “Good luck to them.” He took a drink. “How is Bodhi?”

“He’s good, I guess. Excited about the changes. Busy to the point of being overworked, in my opinion - there’s someone else who needs to retire and enjoy the life he’s earned.”

“You can’t blame him for wanting to do anything he can to bring his home back from the brink of destruction.” 

“I don’t - believe me, I get it. And he’s made more progress than even the experts believed was possible. But he’s going to worry himself into an early grave.”

Cassian laughed. “Early grave? Mi amor, I don’t think any of our graves, when we find them, could be considered early at this point. We’ve all dodged disaster for too long.” 

“Maybe,” she conceded reluctantly. Then she fixed Cassian with a meaningful look. “You should holovid him. He was very disappointed that you weren’t with me this time.” As was I, she thought, but she didn’t want to continue that argument just yet. She’d leave it for another day. 

“I know, I will.” Cassian stared into the distance, his mind clearly drifting back to the problem he’d been pondering when she arrived.

Jyn noticed and rolled her eyes. “Fine. What is the First Order doing that is so dangerous that Malik had to call you in out of retirement?” 

His eyes snapped back to her. “You don’t have the clearance for that anymore.”

She leaned forward. “Do you?” 

Cassian gave her one of his little half-smiles. “No, but there aren’t that many state secrets in all of this.” He waved his hands at the datapads. “Malik is convinced that the First Order is building something. She hoped that I might be able to sift through the available data to determine its nature or purpose - maybe spot something her team missed. They’re understaffed and underfunded to deal with every potential threat facing the Republic. Some things never change.” 

“Building what? A weapon?”

He shrugged. “It wouldn’t surprise me if they were.”

“What does the General say?”

“Good question.” Cassian frowned. “You remember her personal envoy, Korr Stella?” 

“Vaguely.”

“Apparently she’s on Hosnian Prime to meet with the Senate. I’m trying to schedule a time to talk with her before she returns to the Resistance.”

“If Leia is lobbying the Senate to move on the First Order again, she’d be better off doing it in person. She’s about the only one who could get that group off their argumentative asses and moving in the same direction.”

“Maybe.” Cassian placed his glass to the side. “But last I heard she was worried about assassination attempts. I doubt she’s been off a Resistance base in years.”

“Someone should warn her not to fall into the same trap Mon Mothma did - she’ll end up creating her own prison in the name of ‘security.’” 

“I suspect she already knows that,” Cassian said sadly. 

“So the First Order might have a new weapon, but nobody is sure what it is or if it even exists,” Jyn summarized. “Great. Just great.” She dwelt on her annoyance with the whole situation for a few moments more. She was right to be annoyed, she felt - annoyed with it and with Cassian for breaking his promises. Again. Then, with a sigh, she let go of her frustration for the moment. If Malik was right, then the threat was too important to ignore. “Okay then, after dinner we’ll sit down and go through all this together. The two of us have a better chance of making sense of it than you do alone.”

“Really?” He grinned hopefully, making his face look suddenly younger. She was briefly reminded of his deceptively boyish charm when they first met on Yavin IV. “Are you sure? I thought you were retired?”

“I am, but clearly you’re not so that means I’m not either.” She smiled ruefully back at him. “Fix us something to eat and then we’ll get to work.”

Nodding his agreement, Cassian got up and walked toward their kitchen. She heard him stop suddenly and change direction toward the large window in their main living space. “Jyn,” he said, his tone urgent. “Come here. Quickly!”

Confused, she got up to join him at the window. What she saw took her breath away. A streak of red flame was cutting its way across the night sky. Suddenly it broke apart like a firecracker - one part heading toward Hosnian Prime, the capital of the New Republic, while others splintered off in different directions. One seemed to be heading toward their home on Hosnian Vega. 

“What is it?” Jyn asked in shock.

“It’s the First Order,” Cassian guessed, anger making his voice shake.

The horror of it threatened to overwhelm her, but Jyn forced herself to focus on exit strategies. If they could make it to the nearest landing pad, they might have time to escape off world. She turned to Cassian to tell him.

“Landing pad?” he asked, with a knowing smile. He shook his head, sadly. “We’d never make it.” 

“But-“

“Jyn, we can’t dodge this one.” His hands cupped her face. “Te quiero, y estoy feliz que estás aquí conmigo ahora.” 

She swallowed thickly and covered his hands with her own. “I love you too. And I’m so very proud of you.” 

Ignoring the brightness of the oncoming energy beam, they held each other tightly. Within seconds Hosnian Vega was destroyed - the test of Starkiller Base was a success.

**Author's Note:**

> That's three finished or begun. At least one story more to go...


End file.
